A blast from the past AND a wake up call for the future

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Dear Friends,

Rosh Hashana is described in Leviticus as a day of "memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns". For me, the sound of the shofar has always been laden with memories, from the time I was a child listening to my rabbi-dad blow the shofar from the bima, to having my children prompt my own attempts at shofar blowing with "Tekiya Gedola!" in my home community of Tel Mond in recent years.

The Jewish people have listened to the blast of the horn at monumental moments throughout our history; from Mount Sinai where "there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a horn exceeding loud..." (Exodus 19) all the way to Harav Goren at the kotel in 1967.

The Shofar, the only instrument remaining since the time of the Temple, is a blast from the past, but also a wake-up call for the future. Here at BINA, we teach our students to listen to the voice of "the stranger, the widow and the orphan", to listen to the voices of the residents as well as the asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv, of the child struggling to do homework in the local after-school program, of the persons with disabilities fighting for minimum wage, of the elderly who have no one else to hear their story… we teach our students to listen. To listen to one another, to themselves, to the awakening sound of the shofar; and to the silence in the stillness after its blast.

May the sound of the shofar pierce the silence of those without voices, and awaken us to sound our own voices against injustices in the world. Shana Tova U'metuka, to a sweet and healthy new year.

Shana Tova - Happy New Year,
Noga Brenner Samia and the entire BINA family

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BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change, operates under the Israeli nonprofit "Merchavim Chevra Lechinuch Vetarbut".

BINA operates under the Israeli nonprofit Merchavim, with the support of the Kibbutz Movement and the Posen Foundation. BINA is proudly funded by the UJA-Federation of New York, as well as additional supporters, including: Aronson Foundation, Avi Chai Foundation, Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation, Federation CJA Montreal, Gimprich Foundation, Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest, JUF / Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Berl Katznelson Fund, Leichtag Foundation, Matanel Foundation, Montefiore Endowment, Morris Levinson Foundation, Nadav Foundation, Rappaport Family Trust, Shahaf Foundation, Alan B. Slifka Foundation, Sobell Foundation, Ziering Family Foundation, dozens of municipalities across Israel and hundreds of private donors.

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